Friday, June 29, 2012

Kam Yin (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

One of the things I had read about Amsterdam is the abundance of good Surinamese food as a result of mass immigration from the the former Dutch colony, and despite being quite familiar with some of the cuisines that are its major influences (particularly Chinese and Indonesian) I was determined to dine at a Surinamese restaurant just to say I have dined at a Surinamese restaurant in Amsterdam.

The original restaurant we had planned to visit, Albert Cuyp 67, turned out to be closed for renovations. Luckily, I had purchased a local prepaid data plan for my phone so I was able to google an alternative right away. That alternative was Kam Yin, which is located in the Red Light District and was a rather long walk from Albert Cuypstraat where we had been, but after six days in Paris, we were not fazed by a mere 30-minute walk, even though we had already spent hours walking all afternoon.

Kam Yin serves a mix of Chinese, Indonesian, and Caribbean food, though I figured from the name of the restaurant ("Golden Swallow" in Chinese) that it would lean heavily Chinese. I decided to get something with roti in an attempt to stay close to what real people might eat in Suriname. Kam Yin offers several similar roti dishes with vegetables and different meat options; I ordered the Roti Kip Speciaal which was basically chicken in a curry sauce, served with potatoes, green beans, and roti bread. R. got the vegetarian version of it which looks pretty similar, only without the chicken.

Roti Kip Speciaal (6,50 euros)

Roti Kip Speciaal

As I was enjoying my dinner, I spotted a woman a few tables over who had sat at the table next to us earlier in the day at Restaurant Bazar, which was in a whole different part of town and which I had learn of from a whole different source. I'm not sure if it means that Amsterdam is a really small place, or if all travel guides recommend all the same restaurants, or if this woman was just stalking us, but it was an odd coincidence in any case.

In the end, I have no idea if I got a good sense of what typical Surinamese dishes are like since the menu seemed to be mostly Chinese and Indonesian, as far as I could tell. Regardless, the food was tasty and enjoyable, so I'd say it was definitely a good meal.